Apple “may not be the first to debut a new feature or product, but it almost always does it best,” Julian Chokkattu writes for Digital Trends. “Can the HomePod, Apple’s new smart speaker, live up to that expectation? We spent an hour with the speaker, and here are our first impressions.”

“Audio quality is beautifully warm, yet the bass is not overpowering, even though it was still quite rich. If you close your eyes, it’s easy to feel like you’re at a live performance. We could pick out the vocals and instruments clearly. The speaker allows each instrument to shine through; you can hear precise guitar plucks,” Chokkattu writes. “No, it doesn’t have that crisp sound you’d hear from very expensive high-end speakers, but then again, the HomePod doesn’t cost thousands yet still pushes brilliant sound quality out of a single, small enclosure.”

“What’s more impressive is how consistent the HomePod sounds wherever you are in the room,” Chokkattu writes. “Yes, the further away you are, the quieter it is, but not by much. It almost felt like the music was following our movement, and it consistently sounded great… We also got a taste of multi-room playback, where you will be able to play stereo music on more than one HomePod. Music easily filled a loud room, and it sounds brilliant. This feature is not included at launch, nor is the ability to pair two HomePods in stereo – both of these options will be included in a free software update later this year, as part of the upgrade to AirPlay 2.”

Apple’s all-new HomePod

“What is unique about the HomePod is Apple’s spotlight on privacy,” Chokkattu writes. “Siri is listening locally, and then any requests you make are encrypted before it reaches Apple. This data is also anonymized — through the same differential privacy method used on the iPhone — so the requests are not tied to an iCloud account. This is a strong advantage Apple holds over competitors like Amazon and Google if you’re worried about your privacy.”

Ordered space gray to be received Feb. 9. A lot of people are complaining about Homepod, but it will fill my needs just fine. I wanted a smart speaker that I could carry to the patio or the bedroom or the living room, have Apple music availability and do a few homekit chores. Will work wonderfully for that. Others may have grander needs that will be filled in future software upgrades.

Solid, I would venture a guess that even based on apple products that don’t have a battery like the Apple TV or Airport/time capsule line (that retain configuration when unplugged) you can be assured that the HomePod will (retain configuration) as well.

So many claims of Alexa and Google Assistant always listening and sending audio back to servers while HomePod is said here to not do so. Does anyone know of a report where data transmissions have been monitored for Echo and Google Home at ‘rest’? (don’t expect one for HomePod yet being so new).